Age of Empires has gone free to play with the latest franchise entry, Age of Empires Online. Don't worry, Microsoft hasn't taken its much-beloved RTS franchise and given it the Farmville treatment. Instead, the company looks to push the Gas Powered Games-developed title into as many PCs as possible by making a potential barrier of entry, price, a non-factor.

The digitally distributed game (which will also be available at Gamestop as a $19.99 Greek Starter Pack with a poster, hotkey reference card, download instructions, and more) starts players out with two of the most well known ancient civilizations: The Egyptians and The Greeks. The goal? To create a sprawling empire through deft resource management and combat.

Although this core game (heavily modeled after gameplay elements found in Age of Empires 2) is free and packs approximately 40 hours of gameplay, there is some premium paid content. After all, developers have got to eat. The $19.99 Premium Civilization Packs will include new civilizations (Celts and Persians will arrive later in the year), rare and epic gear, and more workshops, crafting halls, inventory slots, and additional PVP and Tech Tree options. The $9.99 Booster Packs offer new game modes, such as Defense of Crete (in which you have to fend off waves of invaders) which will be available at launch. The $4.99 Empire Extras lets you beautify your civilization with unique bush, ornaments, and other items. In fact, Gas Powered Games will release new content on a monthly basis, which will do wonders in keeping the game fresh.

The biggest game change is the addition of social and MMO-style offerings. For the first time, AOE players' civilizations exist in a persistant world where they can co-operatively (or competitively) craft, trade, and go on quests to level up. There's also a slick, new visual style that abandons the muted colors found in previous games, for a more colorful, Team Fortress-like stylized visual that have a refreshing dash of humor.

Really, that's just the top of the iceberg. Look for our full review Age of Empires Online review when the game is available for download (from ageofempiresonline.com) on August 16th.

For more than a decade, Jeffrey L. Wilson has penned gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for a variety of publications, including 1UP, 2D-X, The Cask, Laptop, LifeStyler, Parenting, Sync, Wise Bread, and WWE. He now brings his knowledge and skillset to PCMag as Senior Analyst.
When he isn't staring at a monitor (or two) and churning out Web hosting, music, utilities, and video game copy, Jeffrey mentors, practices Jeet Kune Do, blogs, podcasts, and speaks at the occasional con. He also collects vinyl and greatly enjoys...
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